Melbourne faces a green space paradox: world-class parks, poor global rankings. So what's going on?
Melbourne consistently ranks poorly in international green space studies despite having exceptional inner-city parkland.
Most analyses into the green space around various cities measure parks and trees across a city’s entire metropolitan footprint or even beyond. These broader definitions tend to favour cities with vast peripheral reserves and urban forests.
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In HUGSI’s 2024 survey of 344 cities, Melbourne ranked around 240th with 37% green cover, well below the global average of 43%. Similarly, the World Cities Culture Forum’s parks and gardens metric placed Melbourne at just 9.3%, far behind leaders like Moscow (54%) and Singapore (47%).
Melbourne, by contrast, has relatively limited outer-fringe national parks or country parks inside its municipal boundaries. When you compare total green cover across Greater Melbourne—nearly 10,000 sq km of urban sprawl—the percentage of public parks and gardens is diluted by suburbs, industrial zones and areas of private land.
Melbourne’s advantage
Looking closer at the urban core tells a different story. Within a 5km radius of the CBD—an area of about 7,850 hectares—Melbourne boasts roughly 480 hectares of public parkland, or around 6.1% of that zone. Only London (6.9%) ranks higher among major global cities, with New York third (5.8%).
These figures reflect Melbourne’s legacy of planned green corridors: Royal Botanic Gardens, Flagstaff Gardens, Carlton and Fitzroy Gardens and Albert Park form a continuous network of urban oases.
Advantages of this concentrated park distribution include easy access for residents living in or visiting the inner city. You can walk from Flinders Street Station to the Royal Botanic Gardens in 10 minutes, or catch a quick tram from the CBD to Carlton Gardens for a weekend picnic.
Office workers pop down to the Yarra during lunch breaks, families use Flagstaff Gardens as their local playground, and tourists can easily stroll between Federation Square and Alexandra Gardens without breaking a sweat. When those brutal 40-degree days hit, these inner parks provide crucial cooling and shade within easy reach.
The irony is that Melbourne’s approach might actually be more practical for daily life. Instead of one giant park an hour’s drive away, you get dozens of quality green spaces scattered throughout the inner city. A quick coffee and walk through Treasury Gardens beats battling traffic to reach a giant national park, especially on a weekday. But when international surveys measure total green coverage across entire metropolitan areas, Melbourne’s compact, accessible approach gets overshadowed by cities with sprawling peripheral reserves that most residents rarely visit.
Melbourne’s disadvantage
But there’s a flip side. Want to go mountain biking? You’re looking at a drive to the Dandenongs or beyond. Fancy a proper bushwalk with the kids? That’s at least an hour to reach decent trails in the outer suburbs or regional areas. Meanwhile, cities like Sydney can boast about massive reserves like Lane Cove National Park sitting right within their metropolitan boundaries, boosting their green space percentages considerably. London has enormous spaces like Hampstead Heath and Richmond Park. These cities get credit for green space that’s actually accessible to residents across their entire metropolitan area, not just those lucky enough to live near the CBD.
This lack of vast peripheral parks within the metropolitan boundary means Melbourne appears less green in city-wide league tables. Residents seeking wilderness must travel well beyond the 5km core, adding time, expense and carbon emissions. Broader green space metrics also miss the benefits of pocket parks and landscaped boulevards that enhance liveability at street level.
Likewise, try finding decent green space if you live in many of the city’s outer suburbs – places like Pakenham or Craigieburn – you’re looking at long trips into the city centre just to reach quality parkland. The reality is most Melbourne families don’t live within walking distance of these lovely inner-city gardens. If you’re in Box Hill with kids who want to kick a footy or ride bikes somewhere bigger than the local neighbourhood park, your options are limited.
In short, Melbourne’s inner-city greenery delivers high-quality amenity close to home, but its limited outer-fringe reserves hold it back in conventional rankings that prioritise overall metropolitan parkland.
When international surveys measure this reality, Melbourne’s limitations become clear.
The dark side of Melbourne’s endless suburbs is now getting international attention, find out more here.
